


among thieves

by queenbaskerville



Category: Leverage, White Collar
Genre: Crossover, Episode: s01e01 The Nigerian Job, Gen, One Shot, Season/Series 01, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-24
Updated: 2020-07-24
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:42:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25492534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenbaskerville/pseuds/queenbaskerville
Summary: “Parker is insane.”“Well, I wanted Caffrey,” Dubenich says, “but...”(A brief conversation from the Nigerian Job.)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 81





	among thieves

**Author's Note:**

> this isn’t really anything special but I started watching leverage today and I paused the episode to type this out real quick

“You’re sure Pierson stole your design?” Nathan says.

The man in front of him assured him that’s the case—his engineer missing with his plans, then the company announces an identical project a week later—with a sort of frantic energy Nathan expects from a man at his wits end. The story’s believable enough. Nathan’s hesitant, still, so he prods a little more.

”I don’t know. Stealing them back, it seems like a stupid risk. There’s other ways—”

“Listen to me,” Dubenich interrupts. “At the end of this month, I have a shareholders meeting, Mr. Ford. I’ve spent already five years and a hundred million dollars on R&D. I go to that meeting without anything to show for it and I’m dead.”

Nathan sighs.

“Look, I’m serious. Look—look at the people I’ve already hired,” Dubenich says. His nervous hands push a file toward Nathan and open it for him. “Do you recognize any of these names?”

Nathan feels his brow furrow despite himself as he recognizes the names on the file.

“Yeah, I’ve chased all of them one time or another,” he says, before he cuts himself off. He tries not to let the incredulity leak into his voice. “Parker. You have _Parker_.”

“Is there somebody better?” Dubenich asks.

“No,” Nathan says, “but Parker is _insane_.”

“Well, I wanted Caffrey,” Dubenich says, “but he’s still got a year or so on his prison sentence and I can’t wait that long.”

“You’ve been in touch with _Neal Caffrey?_ ” Nathan says. 

Parker and Caffrey are both legends and the bane of many of Nathan’s former peers’ existences. If Parker is the best, Caffrey’s second best, and at that, maybe only because he got caught. He would’ve been a much safer bet as far as teamwork goes. All three of these people always work alone—a concern that Nathan is sure as hell going to bring up in a second—but Caffrey had allegedly worked with others for one-time jobs, and he’d been rumored to consistently pull jobs with his girlfriend, even though the feds had never been able to pin anything on her.

Although they’d got Caffrey on forged bonds, they hadn’t successfully charged him with any other crimes. Nathan distinctly remembers the Sterling Bosch insurance investigator Sara Ellis raging about the Raphael that Caffrey allegedly stole.

Caffrey is out of Ellis’s _and_ Nathan’s reach. If Nathan takes this job, he’ll have to make do with what he’s got—and that’s Parker, who’s a better thief, but far more unpredictable and unstable. Christ.

Nathan reviews the file again. Maybe it’s better that Caffrey’s unavailable for this one. As far as Nathan’s heard, Caffrey’s very rigidly nonviolent, and Eliot Spencer is the opposite of that. There would likely be a few objections to Spencer’s methodology. Parker, on the other hand, almost certainly doesn’t have those hang ups.

Nathan’s seriously considering overseeing a heist. If Sara Ellis and people like her could see him now—

Nathan puts the thought aside. There’s a reason why he’s out of that life. He returns to the task at hand. Parker. Spencer. Hardison.

_If_ he takes this job, he reminds himself. It’s a big if. 

**Author's Note:**

> I will probably revisit leverage for fics I’m already having a good time


End file.
